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How to Develop the Partners You Already Have
Six areas for evaluation.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
Once you have attracted a new partner or a lateral, the next question is: “What do I need to do to develop my existing partners?”
MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Here is where I find so many CEOs, managing partners and other senior partners falling short.
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Logan Graf: Build a Modern Accounting Business, Not a Job | The Disruptors
“People don’t want to work themselves to death for a third of the year.”
This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines
Logan Graf, owner of The Graf Tax Co and founder of the Counter community, is proof that there’s a better way to run a tax firm. Last tax season, after restructuring, hiring a manager, and implementing a tax scheduling system, neither he nor his manager worked more than 40 hours a week. He believes accounting firms should operate like modern businesses. “We don’t have to look at what’s been done in the past and copy them,” he says.
Graf, who launched his own firm in 2020, took mental notes of what he liked and what he didn’t like at the firms he worked at. At his last place of employment, Scott & Aderholt near Austin, TX, he was given an unusual level of autonomy. “I was basically running a firm within a firm,” he recalls.
MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
In addition to technical work, he also handled client onboarding, return preparation, review, billing, workflow design, and documentation, all of which made going out on his own easier. “It was like a seamless transition,” he says. The extra money as a firm owner was a welcome surprise. “I was basically making double the amount of money and working the same amount of hours, if not less,” compared to his prior jobs.
Advisory Opportunities Emerge from Core CAS Offerings
Think about where your insights originate.
By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide
“We want to offer outsourced CFO and advisory services.”
It has become an increasingly common intent of accounting firms of all sizes.
MORE by Hitendra Patil
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
This article demonstrates how compliance, accounting and reporting can serve as doorways to deeper insights, more strategic conversations and higher-value advisory relationships.
Technology automation, artificial intelligence and more innovative solutions seem to make it even more logical for accountants to feel that the future is more about advisory services than ever before.
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Jaimie Nichols: She Left Firm Life. Two Years Later, She Works Less Than 20 Hours a Week. | Big 4 Transparency
“I make more money now, but more importantly, I’m not miserable.”
This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special OfferSubscribe to CPA
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Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines
Jaimie Nichols expected her accounting practice to grow faster. Two years after leaving firm life, she is glad it didn’t.
Nichols started the practice around the time she learned she was going to become a mother. Now, she tells host Dominic Piscopo on The Big 4 Transparency, she has earned more than she did at her former job while spending far more time with her young son.
“It was the best decision ever,” she says.
MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation
Nichols reports $120,000 in revenue and roughly $10,000 in expenses for 2025. She says she worked fewer than 20 hours a week, even during tax season, and fewer than 10 hours a week outside it. Family members helped with childcare for several weeks during tax season, but she had no paid childcare that year. She estimates that saved her at least $35,000 in infant care costs.
The numbers are striking. Nichols is just as interested in what they leave room for. READ MORE →
“Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | It’s Not Just the Numbers
Accounting teams must ensure their people can recognize anomalies, challenge outputs, and apply sound judgment.
This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm
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It’s Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines
AI is everywhere in accounting right now.
It’s in your inbox, on the Super Bowl, and probably inside at least one tool your firm uses for tax prep. But there’s a conversation happening inside serious accounting firms, the ones processing thousands of returns, managing global teams, and serving clients who expect more than a spreadsheet, that the vendor demos don’t cover.
MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting
JOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY “It’s Not Just the Numbers”
That conversation is about critical thinking.
It may be the most important skill your firm could be developing right now, precisely because AI is making it easier to stop using it.